Patrick Madrid

Patrick Madrid is a life-long Catholic. He is the founder and president of the Envoy Institute, an apostolate established in 1996 that is dedicated to teaching Catholics of all ages how to explain their Faith more intelligently, defend it more charitably, and share it more effectively.

Commenting publicly on the effectiveness of Patrick’s approach to doing apologetics, Cardinal Edward Egan, Archbishop Emeritus of New York, said, “How do you bring a friend or relative back into the Church? First you pray. Then, you follow Patrick Madrid’s advice in [his book] Search and Rescue.”

Patrick has authored or edited 21 books on Catholic themes, including Search and Rescue, Does the Bible Really Say That? the acclaimed Surprised by Truth series,Envoy for Christ: 25 Years as a Catholic Apologist,Why Be Catholic? (Random House), On a Mission (Servant). Scripture and Tradition in the Church (Sophia Institute Press), and two forthcoming volumes in 2015: How to Do Apologetics (Our Sunday Visitor) and Now What? A Guide for New (and Not So New) Catholics (Servant).

Prior to launching the Envoy apostolate, Patrick worked at Catholic Answers for eight years (1988 to 1996), where he served as vice president. A veteran of a dozen formal, public debates with Protestant ministers, Mormon leaders, and other non-Catholics, Patrick has presented countless seminars on Catholic themes, in English and Spanish, at parishes, universities, and conferences across North America, as well as throughout Europe, and in Latin America, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.

Over the past 27 years, Patrick has published numerous popular articles on Scripture, Church history, patristics, apologetics, and evangelization in various Catholic and Protestant periodicals, and he has contributed scholarly articles on apologetics in the New Catholic Encyclopedia.